Marketing and Storage 319 



district is not to be questioned, but too great importance 

 should not be attached to large memberships, particularly 

 if they are indiscriminately selected. From a practical 

 standpoint, the best organizations are those which have 

 grown gradually in membership and which have been 

 careful to exclude the grower of poor fruit. By having 

 only the cream of the output of any particular region, the 

 best returns are obtained for the growers. 



(4) Distance from market is another important factor 

 which must be considered for successful cooperation. An 

 apple-grower situated close to market who has exception- 

 ally high quality fruit, for which he has built up a special 

 market, will be less inclined to abandon his special trade 

 for membership in an association. On the other hand, 

 growers in more remote regions have favored cooperation 

 since it sets up machinery to relieve them of the entire 

 problem of marketing their own fruit for which they have 

 neither the experience nor training. In addition, it en- 

 ables them to have personal representatives in distant 

 markets. 



Form of organization for cooperative associations. 



There are two general forms for organizing cooperative 

 associations: (1) stock corporation; (2) non-stock system. 



Of these the non-stock system is the better. Rather 

 than sell stock and maintain a private corporation which 

 may drift into the hands of a few of the largest stock- 

 holders, it is better that each contributing member should 

 cast a single vote in a purely non-profit or cooperative 

 society. The voting power under this system might be 

 made to vary according to the amount of fruit shipped, but 

 as a rule the one vote a member system is most satisfactory 



